Obama should swallow his pride, negotiate with House GOP

The Sun continues the steady stream of Democratic Party talking points by repeatedly asserting that the current government shutdown is entirely the fault of extreme Republicans bent on creating chaos ("Fund government, then negotiate," Oct. 7).

One of the reasons you offer is that many tea party Republicans are from gerrymandered districts who are not accountable to the national interest. The short answer to that argument is that nobody from Maryland, including The Sun, has a right to complain about another state's gerrymandered districts.

Maryland's congressional districts are so politically engineered to produce Democratic Party true believers that even a federal judge mocked the tortured contours of several of them.

The current deadlock is a fight between a group of gerrymandered districts benefiting Republicans and the gerrymandered districts that provide safe seats in reliably Democratic states like Maryland. Is it any wonder that nothing gets done and trillion-dollar budget deficits continue?

As to your assertion that President Obama is willing to negotiate "everything" but not when a gun is pointed to the head of the American people, one must ask: Since when?

Mr. Obama's entire presidency has been to sneer and belittle Republicans rather than negotiate and compromise on legislation, hoping that his cheerleaders in the media will carry water for him. One need only look at the "sequester" drama to see that the president does not feel obligated to compromise on anything.

Standing in front of human props for televised speeches is not negotiating. Presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan understood this and sat down with their political opponents to work things out.

Instead of putting phony barricades in front of war memorials, perhaps the president should try something new — like being a leader. You never know, but that just might work.